cliquez ici<\/a>!<\/p>\n
\nJesus, The Only Mediator<\/h2>\n
\u201cThere is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.\u201d (1 Timothy 2:5)<\/p>\n
The text on which this month\u2019s message as well as the previous month\u2019s are based comes to us in the form of a Creed the early Church most probably used to recite as part of their liturgy. That Creed consists of two articles separated by the conjunction of coordination \u201cand.\u201d The first article is an affirmation of God\u2019s existence and of His unicity: \u201cThere is one God.\u201d Such an affirmation usually meets with no objection except from the so-called atheists. Generally speaking, the great majority of people have no difficulty acknowledging the existence of a Supreme Being, Maker of heaven and earth. It is concerning the second article that the dispute arises.<\/p>\n
The opponents of the doctrine of the unique mediation of Jesus Christ come from religious as well as secular background. It is disheartening to know that some Church people put other mediators besides Jesus Christ. But I personally believe that to attribute the title of mediator to whomever else \u2500 whether it be Jesus\u2019 mother \u2500 is an offense to God that He cannot overlook, for He Himself said: \u201cThis is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.\u201d (Mathew 3:17) There are also the religions competing with Christianity that put their founders on the same pedestal as Jesus Christ, and even sometimes raise them to a higher rank than him. The most militant among them is Islam whose fundamental affirmation: \u201cThere is no God but Allah and Mohamed is his messenger\u201d is the exact antithesis of Christianity: \u201cThis is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.\u201d (John 17:3)<\/p>\n
Another category of opponents comes from the intellectual circles that for the most part have pledged allegiance to secularism. Those are the freethinkers who affirm the equivalence of all religions and scold Christianity that claims to hold the monopoly of truth. \u201cWhy, they protest, reject the serenity of Buddhism, the prayerful spirit of Islam or the wisdom of Confucianism?\u201d Wouldn\u2019t it more profitable for the world to believe that all roads lead to God than to remain fragmented by so many conflicting beliefs, which can only bring about wars, massacres and all sorts of strife? The idea looks magnanimous, but \u201cthere is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.\u201d (Proverbs 14:12) Only the way marked out by God leads to life, and it\u2019s none other than Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is (…) one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.\u201d Such a statement unmistakably arouses the ire of the unbelievers. It is indeed a statement fraught with consequences; it implies that apart from Christ men and women go straight to perdition, for \u201cthere is salvation in none other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.\u201d (Acts 4:12)<\/p>\n
Is it intolerance or fanaticism to affirm that salvation is found only in Jesus Christ; that there is only one mediator between God and men? Let me quickly show why it is not the case.<\/p>\n
The mediator \u2500 in keeping with the Latin etymology of the word \u2500 is someone who stands in the middle of two opposing parties, trying to reconcile them. That requires that the mediator be well aware of the interests of both parties to be able to defend them without harming any of them. So he must know thoroughly both parties with their own preoccupations. Now, who can know thoroughly God, except God himself? Jesus said it: \u201cNo one knows the Father except the Son.\u201d (Mathew 11:27) And who can also know thoroughly man, if he himself is not a man? That answers the “Cur Deus homo?” (“Why did God become man?” of Anselm of Canterbury.) He became man to be able to fully know man.<\/p>\n
Among all of those lay claim to that noble dignity \u2500 Mohamed, Buddha, Confucius and so on \u2500 only Jesus meets the conditions to be the mediator between God and men, because he is the only one who unites in his person the divine nature and the human nature. By virtue of that double nature, he can stand between God and men to reconcile them with one another.<\/p>\n
The Latin poet Terence once said: \u201cI am a man, I consider nothing that is human alien to me.\u201d Jesus can also make such a statement, for he is a man. But if any man can identify with Terence\u2019s statement, Jesus \u2500 and he alone \u2500 can say: \u201cI am God, I consider nothing that is divine alien to me.\u201d The apostle Paul could say concerning him: \u201cIn Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.\u201d (Colossians 2:9) That means he is as fully human as he is divine.<\/p>\n
He was born in this world, but his \u201cgoing forths are from everlasting.\u201d (Micah 5:2) We hear say in one of the occasions when he testified to himself in John 8:23: \u201cYou are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.\u201d No founder of the great religions of the world \u2500 whether it be Mohamed, Buddha or Confucius \u2500 dared make such a statement, for they knew they were but men and, as such, knew no more about God than the rest of us. None dared say like Jesus: \u201cI am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.\u201d (John 14:6)<\/p>\n
Ah! My friend, if Jesus in the presence of his enemies dared make such statements \u2500 absolute, amazing, staggering statements \u2500 there are only two possibilities: either he was lying \u2500 in which case he would be a lunatic who would not be worthy of the least consideration from us \u2500 or he was effectively what he claimed to be \u2500 in which case your eternal destiny depends on what you will do with him. He is that \u201cchief cornerstone, elect, precious\u201d that God put in Zion. \u201cHe who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.\u201d (1 Peter 2:6)<\/p>\n
You need a mediator for today, who will defend your cause before God. We all bear a very heavy burden \u2500 the burden of our sins. The Bible says, \u201cIf we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.\u201d (1 John 1:10) So we all need a lawyer to defend us on a daily basis before God. In the next chapter of the same epistle (2:1) we read: \u201cIf anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.\u201d Your guilt is eating away at you like canker. Maybe you don\u2019t know it; that\u2019s why you are looking so frenetically for peace in things that will never satisfy you. The rest, the peace you are looking for is in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
Not only do you need a mediator to appear on a daily basis before the face of God to defend you, but also \u2500 which is even more important \u2500 you will need this mediator at the day of judgment. The Bible says, \u201cIt is appointed for men to die once, after this the judgment.\u201d (Hebrews 9:27) The time will come when you will be left alone in the cold tomb, and alone you will appear before your Judge. What will you then without Christ? He wants to be your Advocate who will show to the Father his hands, his feet and his side pierced for you. The wonderful thing is that this Advocate offers his services freely, and they are yours just for the asking: \u201cEveryone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.\u201d (Romans 10:13) Wouldn\u2019t you like to say today to Jesus: \u201cLord Jesus, I take you today as my Savior, my Counsel, my Mediator, my Advocate. I put my entire trust in you for my eternal salvation.\u201d May you do that in this very moment!<\/p>\n
Hubermann Larose
\nAssociate Pastor<\/p>\n
\nSi vous voulez lire ce texte en fran\u00e7ais cliquez ici<\/a>!<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\nFood For Your Soul
\nby Reverend Hubermann Larose<\/p>\n
Si vous voulez lire ce texte en fran\u00e7ais cliquez ici!<\/p>\n
Jesus, The Only Mediator
\n\u201cThere is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":23209,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-27048","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27048"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27051,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27048\/revisions\/27051"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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